The 3 most harmful products for athletes. What should be avoided during training?

Some athletes give up coffee and fatty heavy food a week before an important competition – and not only because it is harmful. The reason is that these products can fail at the most crucial moment, and then they have to quit the race.

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Professional athletes have their eating habits organized into a coherent system of balanced nutrition – it is their way of life. Amateurs have a different way of life. Few people manage to give up sweets and flour – caloric foods that give extra pounds. And it is very difficult to run a distance and train with excess weight

• Sweets – it can be very difficult to give them up. But it is the sweet that often becomes the cause of excess weight and inhibits the results of training.

What can be substituted for these foods?
Daniel: You can replace sweets with fruit. As for burgers, you can replace the white bun with a dark whole-grain bun, and instead of a pork patty, you can use chicken fillet and dress it with the lightest possible sauce. The useful properties of such a set will increase many times over. As for coffee, it is difficult to find an analog. If you can not do without this drink, a cup a day you can afford. But only for the period of preparation for the race and before the start of training, it is better to refuse it.

What products should athletes avoid?

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The black list, which not only spoils the results of training, but also harms health, includes fatty and highly fried food. This can include fast food and dairy products, such as 15-25% fat cottage cheese. “Beautiful” sauces (mayonnaise, ketchup) also fly into the trash, because they contain preservatives and stabilizers. They can spoil even boiled chicken breast.

Among the most harmful products for athletes, experts distinguish three groups.

Products with fast carbohydrates – sweet sodas, cakes, pastries
This category mainly includes products with a high glycemic index (above 70). They contain mostly refined sugars and starches. The most harmful – at least definitely useless for athletes – are sugary carbonated drinks, cakes and other sugary sweets.

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Regular consumption of such products often leads to weight gain by increasing fat mass, but not muscle mass. This has an extremely negative impact on the performance of athletes, increases the risk of overexertion and injury.

Products containing trans fats – mayonnaise, French fries, chips.
Pavel: These are extremely toxic products: margarine, mayonnaise, vegetable oils, which are often used in the preparation of fast food. So-called “artificial” fat is very harmful to health in general. It negatively affects the physical form of athletes (with constant consumption, of course). What is only worth the fact that the consumption of trans fats reduces detoxification of the body and lowers the level of testosterone – the growth hormone. Therefore, all such products are something that athletes should say an unequivocal “no” to.

How many calories are contained in popular fast food, you can see in the video “Championship”.

Alcohol
Here everything is quite clear and unambiguous. One “good” party can nullify the efforts spent on preparation for competitions. As a result – lack of positive sports results. At the same time, the type of alcohol does not matter here. Therefore, alcoholic beverages are allowed either on vacation, or in very minimal, purely symbolic doses. This is especially true for professional athletes and those who want to make healthy lifestyle a part of their life, not an intermediate stage.